PROJECT HIGHLIGHT | East Rosedale Monument Project

Christopher Blay’s artwork for East Rosedale Avenue recognizes the role of transit buses in the civil rights movement from the 1950s through the 1970s and connects the struggle for equal rights and justice from a national narrative to a local one.

For East Rosedale Monument Project, the artist transformed a vintage transit bus into a public artwork as a way of talking about the history of buses in the civil rights movement and preserving that history. From the Montgomery bus boycotts and the Freedom Riders to the busing of students for integration, the transit bus has played a key role in the fight for justice and equality. Engraved panels within the bus shell focus on these stories along with others who protested the policies of segregation and fought for justice and equality here in Fort Worth. This monument also engages with the conversation about national monuments and which stories get to be canonized in the public sphere.

Over the years many historic buildings have been lost in one of the oldest historic African American neighborhoods in America; however, Christopher Blay notes,

 By placing this monument to the struggle for equality in full view of the city, and highlighting its connection to that very cause, we not only recognize the Evans neighborhood’s connection to that struggle, but also place a marker to where we’ve been, and where we are going.     

In connection with the public artwork, the artist commissioned April Pelton, Tarrant County Youth Poet Laureate for 2023, to write a poem which is displayed on an electronic screen in the monument. It reads:

My Southside, Our Community

A place abounding in love,
From the people around us to the skies above.
Where the smell of soul fills your nose,
And goodness are the seeds we sow.

This one street is connected,
Many others beautifully intersected.
For the community here is proud and bold
With inspiring stories deserving to be told.

Christopher Blay dedicates this monument to the memory of his father, T. Oliver Blay, Sr., and in honor of his mother Annie D. Blay whose love, encouragement, and support gave him the confidence to become an artist.

The East Rosedale Monument Project is anticipated to be dedicated to the City of Fort Worth on Saturday, February 1, 2025. Please check back for more details.